Shave Ready Razor

It looks like you wish to give up your cartridge razor and start shaving like a man. But you know nothing about stropping and honing. These procedures make the edge perfect for shaving. And you probably don’t know that most of the straight razors offered at the market are not ready for shaving out of the box! Most of people think that a new razor is very sharp when you receive it. But that’s wrong. A new razor is usually factory sharpened, but that’s not enough…

Most of the straight razors are not “Shave Ready” and must be honed by professional before you can use it. You can try to hone it yourself or use special service for this. If you don’t want to deal with it you can purchase one of so-called “Shave Ready” razors which are also available. Such blade can be used right after you receive it and doesn’t require extra sharpening. This may look great but that’s not the best option. Let us explain why.

Pros and Cons

If you wish to buy a razor with perfect edge you limit yourself. The market is full of great offers. If you don’t want to deal with honing you may miss great options. For example you see a very good razor, you like how it looks, it has many 5 star reviews and you like the price but it is not sharpened. You have to ignore this great offer just because you don’t want to deal with sharpening.

The fact is that many great razors are not Shave Ready! They occupy large market share and you will have to ignore all of them just because you don’t want to hone.

You shouldn’t be afraid to hone a razor because sooner or later you will have to deal with it! Why you wish to buy a honed tool only? It will become useless in several months anyway and you will have to sharpen it yourself (or to use service).

There is also one more fact that may shock you: most of so-called Shave Ready razors in online stores have low price (and usually low quality) and the phrase that they are “ready for shaving out of the box” is usually a marketing trick to catch attention of unexperienced buyer.

Many low-cost and low-quality manufacturers are trying to compensate low quality of steel by sharpening the edge. The fact is that even sharpened edge will not make the razor perfect for shaving. You will be able to use it several times but after this it will become almost useless. You will be disappointed and you will have to buy top-end razor anyway.

If you really want to find a shave ready blade you should visit eBay. There are a lot of sellers there and they may offer you a good deal.

The Best Decision

But why not just purchase top-end razor from big retailor, sharpen it using professional service and use it for several months without honing? On our opinion this variant is the best. It has a lot of positive moments:

You can buy any top-end razor you wish! You are not limited! Top-end blades are usually more expensive but you will get really great quality. It will stay sharp for a long time and you will be enjoying the process of shaving.

Sooner or later you will hone it and you will know where you can do it. Or you can try to learn to hone yourself. Many men are doing this and you will also be able to master the process.

Why Big Manufacturers don’t Hone?

If you explore the market you will see that most of top-end straight razors are not shave ready. That’s fact. Are big manufacturers lazy? On our opinion they don’t prepare razors for shaving just because it’s a tough task. Imagine, a company produces large amount of razors daily and all of then must be made shave ready…

Moreover, a perfect edge can be done by a professional only manually. Machines don’t do this job. For example Dovo razors are sharpened by machines and they have very sharp edge, but if you give this razor to specialist he will be able to make it even sharper.

As you see it’s much better to buy a high-quality razor, give it to a specialist and let him prepare the edge for the first time for you. After this is done you have a perfect “tool” for shaving. We also recommend you to learn how to sharpen and next time you will be able to hone without external help.